Fairytale
by hoarfrosted
Summary: Interactions. Refia has always been a hopeless romantic, and Ingus's love-life is the perfect story to stick her nose into.


Ingus sat quietly at a wooden table inside the Invincible, staring solemnly at the broken fragments of Princess Sara's necklace in his hand. The silver snap to hold the opposite ends of the chain was twisted beyond normal means of repair, the chain was snapped in two places, and the one of the emerald jewels in the front end of the necklace had popped out of its cracked shell.

The blond boy shook his shaggy head and sighed, bringing his fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose and ward off the incoming migraine. Though he had given the princess his word that he would do anything in his power to fix her necklace, he had no idea where to even begin. The trinket had been passed down through the women of the royal family for many generations and was made of a foreign metal that none of the jewelers of Sasune could identify, which made his task a dozen times more difficult.

When he looked back up, he nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of Refia sitting across from him, grinning from ear to ear. Ingus sat straighter in his chair, heavily apprehensive of the overly-cheery girl's sudden appearance. To make his nerves worse, she hadn't moved or…blinked in the past few minutes he'd spent waiting for her to state her business.

"Is there something I can assist you with, Miss Refia?" he drew out each word carefully, uncertain how to deal with the present threat. Refia shook her head flippantly before returning to her doll-like vision. Ingus furrowed his eyebrows in befuddlement and worry, considering inquiring on his friend's mental health. "Very well then," he nodded.

"_Soooo_?" she leaned forward coyly, her grin somehow widening considerably. Ingus gave her his most bewildered glare, not understanding the tone in her voice. "You and dear Princess Sara, _hmm_?" she reached across the table and tapped the back of his hand with a wink that was most likely meant to be covert, but did nothing to quell the shivers he was getting from her strange behavior.

"What about Princess Sara and I?" he quickly snatched his hand away from her fingers, uncomfortable even through his glove. He wasn't a huge fan of extended contact _without _unidentified connotations, so it was only natural that Refia's actions would put him off.

The redhead rolled her eyes, as if _she_ should be the annoyed one, before fixing him with a knowing look – what she knew, he had no knowledge of, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know. "You totally have feelings for her, _that's_ what's about you and Princess Sara."

Ingus's immediate reaction was to give her the scowl he reserved for the gooey remains of flan that stuck to the bottom of his sabatons. "I beg your pardon? That is a _completely_ absurd notion, suggesting that the princess and I are involved!" She remained unfazed by his scornful look, still giving him those infuriating red eyes of hers.

"Oh please, it's so obvious that you like her. I could tell the first time I saw you two talking," she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms, nodding knowingly. "You're meant to be together, like star-crossed lovers separated by class," she clasped her hands in front of her, gaining a distant gleam in her eyes. "It's so tragic, you poor thing."

Ingus stared silently at her for a moment before coming to his conclusion. "You have clearly lost all sense of reason. I shall seek Master Arc for his curative abilities." He made to stand, fully intent on fetching Arc to heal Refia's obviously infected mind, but she grabbed his arm to pull him back into his seat.

"You can deny it all you want, I know you have feelings for her," she said while sliding her chair closer to his side of the table, keeping a surprisingly firm grip on his arm to stop him from fleeing. "I know true love when I see it. I mean, why else would you automatically promise her you'd fix her necklace when you know nothing about either jewelry or metal?"

It was these moments that made Ingus wish he was the sole Warrior of Light. He opened his mouth to give an articulate, well-thought out answer, but all that came out was a mess of stuttered vowels and low croaks. Anything he considered reasoning with sounded weak and pathetic in his own head, which meant Refia would easily pick it apart and shove it back in his face, and he wasn't ready to cave just yet. "I just – I thought…uh…I –"

"Would do anything to make her happy?" Refia supplied helpfully, smirking as if she'd just captured him in her trap, which was vaguely possible. Ingus dropped his head with a defeated sigh, running a hand through his unkempt hair. Refia rubbed his arm consolingly, even when he fixed her with a glare that clearly stated _she wasn't helping_. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm positive she feels the same way about you."

"It would make me feel better if you minded _your own_ affairs," he quipped unhappily, picking off her offending hand.

"And the funny thing is, she probably thinks she's being secretive about it too," she continued as if he hadn't said a word, giggling vivaciously. "You two are just so adorable it makes me want to cry," she said with a pointed sniffle, holding her hands her hands to her chest and giving him a watery smile.

Ingus took another minute to glare at her before his eyes fell to the fragments of the necklace in his hand. "It matters not. I have no method of restoring her necklace to its former self. She will never forgive me after such an egregious failure," he said ruefully, his bottom lip definitely _not_ pushing out in a pout. Refia's drawn out _d'aww_ did nothing to help his mood.

"First off," she ticked off a finger, waving it around in front of his face, "if you think she'd actually feel that way if you couldn't fix her necklace, you're being over dramatic." There was something inherently ironic about that accusation, but he chose not to address it and let her continue. "Second, I did have a good reason to bother you, besides you and Princess Sara's unresolved romantic tension."

It occurred to him that he had glared more in the past fifteen minutes than what his facial muscles were used to, but that didn't stop him from shooting daggers at Refia with his eyes. "Oh, don't give me that look," she waved him off, "I promise you'll want to hear this, because _I _think I know someone who can help with your little jewelry dilemma" she sung cheerily.

Ingus perked up at the prospect of not disappointing Sara. "What? Why did you not tell me earlier?

"Because I just thought of it a little while ago," she said airily, shrugging it off. Ingus bit back a displeased frown, knowing that angering her would get him nowhere. "Anyway, I figured that since Takka's a wiz with all sorts of different kinds of metal, maybe _he'd_ know what Sara's necklace is made of. If he does, we can definitely get him to repair it for us, and then you can be the hero."

The blonde's turquoise irises shined at her words. Of course Takka would know something; his style of blacksmithing method was based on older, more traditional techniques and materials. Some deeper, more desperate part of Ingus assured him that Takka would have all the answers he needed. "Excellent!" he stood from his chair excitedly, nearly knocking it on its back. After giving a short nod to Refia, he rushed away from the living area of the ship to the helm, shoving Luneth away and taking the wheel. Refia watched him with star-struck eyes, wiping a tear from the corner of eye."

"I'm just like the godmother in a romantic fairytale," she splayed her hands over her heart, infinitely proud of herself. "It's almost happily ever after."


End file.
